Industry News

On July 31, 2019, the Center for State & Local Government Excellence (SLGE) and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) published its infographic, Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEBs) by State: FY 2017 Snapshot.  The infographic contains a series of graphs that illustrate key data and trends of OPEBs on a state-by-state basis, including: unfunded liabilities, assets, costs, and current contribution levels.

The summary indicates that there are significant variations among states related to the types of retiree health benefits offered, level of unfunded liability, and other factors regarding annual costs and budget effects.  In FY 2017, about $673 billion (93%) of state OPEB liabilities were not funded by assets.  In addition, 28 states have about $52 billion in assets that vary to prefund OPEB benefits, of which 34% are being held by the State of Ohio and its political subdivisions.  States’ actual OPEB spending was about 1.5% of state fund expenditures in FY 2017.  In aggregate, states contributed about 44% of the actuarially determined contribution (ADC) and, if the full ADC was paid, state spending on retiree health benefits would increase to 3.5% of state fund expenditures.

The infographic is available here.